reviews

Biker mice from Mars, a mysterious manuscript that can control the world, and a space-traveling samurai rabbit all play out in the creatively vibrant pages of graphic works this season, filling collections with innovation and engagement. 

Stan Sakai is the creator of “Usagi Yojimbo,” a graphic novel series featuring a samurai rabbit named Miyamoto Usagi living in 17th-century Japan; the new installment, Space Usagi: White Star Rising, is due out from Dark Horse in May. LJ talks with Sakai about samurai warriors, blending genres, and his enduring career.

Eight meaningful, whimsical, philosophical, historical, and fantastical works that are a joy for both reading and viewing.

Graphic novels have enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in the last five years. Since 2019, sales of graphic novels have risen over 100 percent. While that growth has leveled off, graphic novels are now the third best-selling genre (35 million books sold) in the U.S. and Canada, behind only general fiction and romance. 

Illustration, design, color, and text combine to create multisensory reading experiences in these extraordinary titles.

Comics play to their strengths this season, stressing layout and mood while also supporting reader interests in works of horror and adaptation.

Emil Ferris grew up during the turbulent 1960s in Chicago, where she still lives, and is consequently a devotee of all things monstrous and horrific. She has an MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

New graphic novel series include a fantastic space opera, an intriguing sci-fi adventure, and an occasionally shocking, sometimes nightmarish, completely unpredictable satire of modern masculinity.

Comics seem uniquely equipped to educate about health and medicine, as these stories of sickness and medicine demonstrate.